Christmas

One day while getting groceries I told Theo a car in the parking lot was dressed up. I asked what it was dressed up as.
He said, "It has antlers."
"Yes," I said.
"And a red thing."
"That's it's red nose. What is it?" I asked him.
"It's a moose clown!"

We went to see Santa at our new ward's Christmas party. They had  really good man in red.
I had been trying to prep him to sit on Santa's lap.
Me: We're going to see Santa tonight. When you see Santa, you sit in his lap.
Theo: I want to sit on the floor.
Me: Usually you sit in Santa's lap. I'll be right there.
Theo: I want to sit in your lap!
Me: Well usually you sit in his lap and tell him what you want for Christmas.

Note: I wasn't going to make him sit in Santa's lap if he didn't want to. I just wanted to tell him how it usually goes.

Theo fell asleep as we were driving there and we woke him and he saw Santa soon after. With conviction that belied his sleepy state, he walked up to him and declared, "I want a magnifying glass!"
Santa told him, "We'll get to that. Do you want to sit in my lap?"
Theo sat and then frowned for some pictures. This one looks less frowny. The photographer didn't send the others.

Afterward driving home, though, Theo told me he didn't think it was the real Santa. He didn't look like Santa. Now, this Santa was actually a professional one, an older man with a white beard. He looked great. After some questioning, I realized he thought the Peppa Pig Santa was real and so was expecting a cartoon. Oh dear.

This is what he expected Santa to look like

Theo loves finding the alphabet in magazines and having me cut them out. He has started to tell me, "Cut out the 'o' from the word 'home,'" so I figure that looking at these letters and actually identifying words means that this activity is good for reading and so beneficial -- and not just something that can be time consuming for me and leaves letters littering my house.

Today he was looking through a Better Homes and Garden's magazine that had a few pages about hair products. Theo narrated in an announcer voice, "And this is all you need in the bathroom!"

For Christmas Eve we had our traditional big extended family gathering. I heard there were 43 people attending. I heard there were over 60. I did not stop and count so I can't tell you how many there actually were. I also did not bake for it. I said I'd bring rolls, which I did, but I bought them. I was busy with a new house. I did help with set up so I don't feel guilty :)

My family loves games

At my Grandma's Christmas party

Cousins!

Jay holding my cousin's baby girl

Theo wants me to add that that night at the party Santa got him a Peppa Pig set. Today at the doctor's he played and played with it, pretending Peppa and Daddy Pig were super heroes. He also loves to take them to the park.

Christmas Morning

His gift from Santa:

For the next one with the kenetic ring, I was not putting words in his mouth. I was just trying to get on camera what he had just said when I wasn't filming.

Fill with water, blow up punching bag from the Dollar Store. It lasted only a few days but Theo loved it.

The suckers were tongue tattoo ones. You can see the paw print on his tongue. They had Paw Patrol on them and so matched his new helmet.

Kenetic rings on the doggie

New balance bike. He still is learning to ride it.

On Christmas Theo got a balance bike. Jonah showed him how to ride it, only Theo didn't pay too much attention. He ran after Jonah, scolding, "You MUST wear a helmet!"

Theo got along well with Jonah and Clara, who live in Utah. Now Theo's favorite scripture story is Jonah and the whale (big fish). He requests it a lot for family scriptures. He can fill in that Jonah is supposed to go to Ninevah.